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Comment by 2143 | Hacker News Reader

What if I go abroad for a few days and need a temporary SIM from there, but my phone only supports eSIM?

With eSIM there's a tighter coupling between the phone and carrier. Not sure if I like that.

> Apple’s move to make eSIM the only option for iPhone 14 range in the U.S. is propelling the worldwide shift towards eSIM technology.

Speaking of which, I know for a fact that the iPhone 14 sold in India has a SIM card slot (eSIM also supported).

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Just got back from 2 separate trips to Europe with an iPhone 14 pro (eSIM only US model). The first trip I landed in Germany, remembered I needed a phone plan when I landed, and got a 1 month unlimited plan on DT using the airport Wi-Fi and was good to go. For the 2nd trip to France I downloaded a short traveler plan eSIM to my phone before leaving and activated when I got off the plane.

In both cases it was easier than dealing with physical SIMs. Also there was no concern about how many slots the phone had, it can even store extra non-active eSIMs on top of having your two active ones.

Okay! That's reassuring :)

Same. I landed in Turkey last month and picked up a Europe-wide eSIM via the airport WiFi. Quick and easy. It saved me faffing with storing my local SIM somewhere safe for a month and from having to find a SIM store that isn't trying to rip off tourists.

There are companies (won’t endorse any in particular) that will let you buy data eSIMs for virtually any country. They can be downloaded before you leave or using airport WiFi, and usually activate automatically when you arrive.

I’ll endorse one - been using Airalo for a few years, works great. I prefer using that app to finding someone at the airport to buy a SIM card from.

It’s very expensive though, compared to a local SIM. It’s not really a replacement for local SIMs, it’s more like a good international roaming plan from your home country, more convenience at a higher cost.

Airalo is $5 for Europe for a week. I can’t imagine any savings over that that would outweigh the convenience…

Its all relative — I paid $10 for a month in Germany as a resident (comes with full EU roaming). Prices in other EU countries are even cheaper. It took 1 minute to plug it in.

Also, travelers from Western countries might not really be ecstatic about paying for paying $$ for something that comes with zero upside to physical SIM.

People pay more for digital media than physical media in other contexts for the convenience. I'm not going to buy a DVD on amazon to save a few dollars.

It's subjective, I'm sure there's still people buying DVDs, but you can't say that there's "zero upside"

The $5 plan only gets you 1GB of data. I usually get through much more than that while travelling.

Last time I was in the UK ended up walking into a Vodafone shop and got a physical SIM and 30 day 20GB pay as you go plan for £10. That would cost $74 on Airalo.

I'm looking forward to eSIM being more widely supported as its definitely more convenient. In the last year most US carriers have started offering it on their PAYG plans.

If you are a tourist for a few days then I understand completely not wanting to waste time looking for a local SIM.

On the other hand, if you are a regular visitor to a country, or you are meeting a local who can hook you up, or you are staying for a while, then it may be worth getting a local SIM. Some countries make it easy, others make it difficult. In UK for example it’s very easy to get a SIM and the local prices are about half of Airalo (which doesn’t seem to offer an unlimited data plan).

If you want a lot of data arialo is not really competitive.

I’ve always assumed this, too. I am currently in Andorra and the biggest prepaid plan from Andorra Telecom (the only mobile operator) is 19€ for 3gb of data (and 60 minutes of talk, which I don’t need). It was simple to get using their website and an eSIM.

Just checked Airalo and they have 3gb for $10.50 usd! That’s like 9.50€ or something and Airalo always seems to have a 15% off coupon (maybe first order only?). They also have larger plans. I am going to switch over as soon as I run out of data on my Andorra Telecom plan.

I’ll endorse Airalo, they’re amazing. I use them religiously for temp eSIMs while traveling. Would never go back to physical sims.

I tried them when I visited the US. It did not work for me at all and I needed to rely on wifi instead.

Recommend T-mobile prepaid pass when you're in the states.

I went to Japan and used Ubigi, which has service basically anywhere, to add dual-SIM and have data. I also used Airalo. Both worked great with e-SIM, and it was painless to get data activated and working. There was also a large variety of plans to choose from. I really liked the whole experience!

> With eSIM there's a tighter coupling between the phone and carrier. Not sure if I like that.

I'm not sure what you mean? Carriers already have the ability to lock a phone to their network, regardless of eSIM or not.

No they don't? They can lock it if they sold it to you, but they can't lock arbitrary devices.

how do eSIMs enable locking arbitrary devices to a network?

Yes they literally can lock any device you plug their SIM into, if they want to. They used to, but it's uncommon now.

They do that to a device that I own without providing the service for free for the entire period, then they're getting sued. They have absolutely no right to claim ownership over my fully paid device.

And they typically don’t these days but there’s no technological prohibition and it was common a decade ago.

The iPhone 14 sold in China has dual physical SIMs and no eSIM support.

Interesting, maybe a paranoid in the dictatorship realised eSIM support would mean it'd be much much easier for someone to get a foreign SIM (just get a QR code delivered) and bypass the great firewall.

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